The day of the launch! On this day we had a later start of 10:30am so I used the extra time to get a rested night’s sleep and thereby woke up excited and eager to see the rocket launch. Rockets and Shuttle launches were something I’d seen on television as a kid and on the internet as an adult but never imagined that I’d see one in person and certainly not up as close as I had the opportunity to do.

Imagine my surprise that the first stop after the buses pulled out was to see OSIRIS-REx much closer than I’d ever dreamed. Check it out!

On top of that Tory Bruno and Dan Collins the CEO and COO of United Launch Alliance were there to answer questions and take photos with us, including one great group photo of everyone invited to this #NASASocial event.

The wonderful Social Media team with Jason Townsend in the middle (Black shirt holding a camera). You can tell that they all love what they do!

Group shot with OSIRIS-REx in the background on top of ULA’s Atlas V rocket
(Photo courtesy of NASA Social Media team)

From there they headed to the southeast of the very large Vehicle Assembly Building and visited the Launch Control Center where Apollo missions and all since were managed from! It’s even on the National Register of Historic Places. Once inside we were given a history of NASA and then taken up to Firing Room 1, which was the first of the firing rooms to support a mission in the Apollo era! I felt truly amazed at every step of this journey but being in this building felt like literally touching American Space History…and when you think about it, I did.

I’d visited Kennedy Visitors Center twice before when on cruises that stopped in Port Canaveral and I’d see from there a building that I wanted to go into each time the VAB…Vehicle Assembly Building! For as large as it looked from afar it seemed even more monumental up close.

The vastness of this building is amazing, there are very few structures that you can step into where you can look up 526 feet (160 meters) and see from floor to ceiling. The sides of it actually slide fully open from top to bottom in order to move the Space Shuttles out (before the program ended) onto the shuttle mover that rolls on Tennessee river rock that goes down 6 feet (1.8 meters). This rock can withstand the weight of the mover with the shuttle on it, unlike concrete, asphalt et cetera, and even the Tennessee river rock becomes ground down to sand after a while, and top ups are needed.

Once again I love the enthusiasm of those that work at NASA, it is rather like Starfleet in its very early stages, and with companies like SpaceX and Boeing working in a similar space in the area, it also has a Federation feel. 🙂

This Orion capsule is a model used to test weight of an in use Orion space craft.

A ballast filled with water.

This wall titled the Space Shuttle Program Tribute was signed many people who contributed to the success of the program. (More photos in the gallery below.)

On some of the tours were people that worked at NASA. After all there are ten centers in the U.S. and just because you work there doesn’t mean you get to see areas that you don’t work in. One of the people I met doing this was a Systems Engineer who runs a team of specialists named “Jo”. She agreed to do an interview with TravelXena.com about women in the STEMS. I intend to add these interviews because asking questions is the start of exploration and travel and hopefully the interviews that I plan on showcasing here will encourage people to ask more, learn more and engage more in the world around them and the space above. Look out for that interview! #WomenInSTEM

As if all of the experiences had so far weren’t amazing enough we head back to the lunch area and had guest speakers we had met the day before come in to answer more questions people like Dr. Michelle Thaller, Dr. Alex Young, Dr. Ellen Stofan and more culminating with the head of NASA himself, NASA administrator and astronaut Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden!

Exciting indeed! He spoke of many things but one of the things that stuck with me was him really encouraging minorities to focus on the sciences and don’t let a mind set stop them, because sometimes the biggest obstacle to achieving things that we never thought possible can be ourselves.

Not sure what I was saying here. I think we were talking about our links to South Carolina he had family from Columbia, SC and my family are Sea Islanders (Gullah) on my Dad’s side.

However I finally managed to smile normally!

To finish off the day the buses now head over to the causeway area where the group would watch the launch.

Here is the NASA Video of the launch — I decided to take the suggestion of Mr. Bolden and to just absorb and enjoy the launch and put my camera down. NASA has the best footage and photos to be found of the launch so I figured I’d soak in the experience. I did point my camera in the general direction but since I wasn’t looking through the lens or viewer I didn’t get much footage. I did however have the chance to be interviewed on video for NASA Goddard TV right before the launch Thanks for the opportunity Katrina! •ᴗ•

NASA video of the launch of OSIRIS-REx

It was the end of a beautiful, memorable day however there was another surprise to be had. There was to be a press conference at 9:00pm and Jason invited those that were interested in staying to view it either in the Press Building or next door in the room of the actual press conference itself. I was one of about 8 (out of the 100) people that decided to stay longer and experience this too. I’m very glad that I did. There was space in the press room and I had the opportunity to be there during the live taping of the Q&A of experts from this successful launch and historic mission.

Well my travel loving and explorer friends that was the end to my amazing and historic trip. I’ll never forget it, and it even has me thinking about what I can persue educationally in the near future. In the mean time I’ve become a citizen scientist able to help NASA Scientists out with research, if you’re interesting in participating in a NASASocial event or becoming a citizen scientist or learning more about NASA check out the links below and in this post. 🙂

Flashback!

Day 1– Offered a chance to sit in on a panel of experts who are leading In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). I didn’t have all of the names of those present but thanks for fellow NASASocialite Brian Hart @vr_bhart there is video of nearly the entire session. Thanks Brian!

The Panelists were as follows (Noted in the order of introduction) :

Dr. Daniel Britt

Professor of Astronomy at the University of Central Florida
Physical and Surface Processes of Asteroids and Mars

Dr. Jacqueline QuinnEnvironmental Engineer
Inducted into the FL Inventors Hall of Fame for her work in Environmental Radiation
Project Manager for Resolve – searches for resources on the moon in the near future

Dr. James MantovaniPhysicist and Lead Scientist in KSC Swampworks in the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Research lab
Working on R&D for ISRU for the Moon, Mars and Asteroids

And another BIG thank you to all of the cool people that took photos of me when I asked for them to. There are so many images that wouldn’t be here if not for their willingness. An especially LARGE thank you to the gentleman that took so many photos of Administrator Bolden and myself on my DSLR and Smartphone. Thanks so much!

So now I bet you’re wondering, “How can I be invited to one of these cool NASA Social events and meet these amazing Engineers, Scientists and Astronauts and see an awe inspiring rocket launch?”

If you’re active on social media, have an interest in space, science and are interested in attending a future NASA Social event find more information here: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/social/index.html

The hubby and I are big Star Trek fans. My Dad is a Trekkie and I remember watching reruns of (TOS) the original series with him when I was about 4.

The Mister started watching (TNG) The Next Generation as a Pre-teen (what they know call tweens) and was inspiration for him to become an Electrical Engineer.

Despite this Star Trek love before this past weekend we had only been to one convention about 5 years ago. However as Star Trek Missions was coming up on the 50th anniversary of TOS we figured we had to get there even if only for one of the 3 days.

We made the decision to go to the event two weeks prior which didn’t leave a lot of time for costume and accessory prep but with the help of a great seamstress on Etsy (The Apocalypse Project) who whipped up a custom authentic looking Uhura skant for me complete with lieutenant ranking on the arms and a Communications patch.

The Mr. (HikingCampingTrails.com) decided to buy one from Amazon as he couldn’t find the hos Spock shirt from our previous Star Trek convention.

Oddly he chose a Spock shirt from the current movies instead of from ST Classic but there you have it 😁.

We made our way to the Javits Center in NYC and joined fellow Trekkies in enjoying all there was on offer.

The day was great. There were so many highlights and wonderful people. I tried to get as close to Uhura’s costume as possible and it seemed to make people smile. I even got a hug from one lady at the end of the day who told me that I was her favorite all day. A man in his car driving down the street yelled “I love you Uhura.” Making people happy is the best part of Cosplay! I met a cool cosplay Will Riker, Data and an Andorian! A long with many more people like There and Vee that made the day special.

We took photos with William (Bill) Shatner and LeVar Burton! I even had LeVar sign my Reading Rainbow T-Shirt! I’d wanted to meet him and since I was a kid and I finally did. All in all it was an awesome day!

Secret beaches. That’s right. Of of course other people know about them and other sites might tell you exactly how to get there, if you know what to look for. I’m not telling anyone their names…but I will tell you where they are. Consider it a quest for your next Bermuda vacation to find these lovely quiet spots.

Small Sea Glass Beach – Sandys Parish

There are a few of these around Bermuda. Frankly this one might have been private. I’m not sure, but we heard about it and made our way there. If you take a cruise here and arrive in dockyards it’s walkable however because there are no official sidewalks in parts I don’t recommend it. You can take the bus a few minutes and if he driver has heard of it, they’ll stop for you. However it won’t be immediately visible, you’ll have to walk a ways. There’s not nearly as much glass there as there used to be since selfish visitors have removed it by the bucket load…yes literally. Remember that if we all take from it, it won’t be here in future, so please don’t take it home, there are now penalties for doing so due to many greedy tourists and a picture says 1000 words, and so I leave you with these.

Considering all of the times we’ve been too Bermuda you’d think that we’d have done pretty much all that we were interested in. However there’s always something else that we want experience.

On this trip we took Hartley’s Helmet Dive. I’d done something similar in Australia before, but it was a while ago and I didn’t experience it with anyone that I knew. So as an anniversary present to my husband I booked this for us. I’m not much of a swimmer however my husband is pretty good. Despite the differences in our aquatic ability it was an enjoyable to us both.

Greg is the son of the man that originated this form of ocean exploring for tourists and he does a great job in keeping up the tradition.

After listening to instructions as well as Greg colorful and insightful way of seeing the world we donned out wetsuits about 35 minutes after taking off from Heritage Wharf in the Dockyards area. We went down in a small group of 5 and spend 45 minutes or so being enchanted and entertained by undersea life about 15 feet below in an adorable reef.

Alive with fish, sea cucumbers, coral, anemones and more. As they say if you can breath and walk at the same time you’ll be able to do this.

We took video and that will be posted soon…no really. Okay it’ll probably take me another month but it will be posted in the future.

It was a fun afternoon and it’s recommended. If you arrive by ship and plan on doing this the day you leave definitely take the morning sailing as the total time you’ll be out is about 4 hours. It’s $95 per person and $40 for the undersea photos and videos taken with their professional equipment. You can also bring your own underwater camera and video camera. Learn more here.